Musings on Mesothelioma

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Tag Archives: Mental health

Since the day my oncologist diagnosed me with a rare, incurable cancer, one for which long-term survival is considered five years, I have become obsessed with getting rid of my belongings.

It’s not that I’m into Minimalist Living, the trendy lifestyle of the moment, because I’m a proud Maximalist. Nor am I following the advice of best selling author Marie Kondo, whose book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” advocates purging everything which does not bring us joy. Most of Kondo’s system just doesn’t work for me. I tried following her strict rules, but halfway through folding my socks so that they stood upright like mini soldiers in my drawer, I lost my freaking mind. I started dressing up my, (now deceased dog), Leroy, in my old sweaters:

I have so many lovely things (most of them not practical – that’s my specialty) and each piece brings me joy. Therefore I should keep them all, right? I’ve never heard anyone say: “I want less joy in my life please.” Note: I am not an actual hoarder. As part of a volunteer job I used to visit an elderly woman who was a true hoarder, so I know what that chaos looks like; I’m just a collector of pretty things.

The kind of de-cluttering and purging that I engage in, is fueled by my deep anxiety that I will die soon and that my partner with be stuck with all of my stuff. He will be devastated (his word) and in addition to processing his own grief and dealing with my family, (they love him deeply and consider him their son-in-law), he will have to go through all of my belongings. Having never had to be in charge of such a depressing task, I can only imagine how difficult it would be. I see my compulsive de-cluttering as preparation for my death and as something that will make my partner’s life a little bit easier down the road.

Of course the deeper truth here is my desperate need to control something, anything. I can’t control my cancer. I can’t control how my body reacts to cancer treatments. I can’t control the myriad of complications that arise. But I can control how much stuff I leave behind and that makes me feel less powerless.

So I continue my regular mini-purges. I keep most of my vintage items, like Pulp Fiction books with wonderful cover art, my hoop earrings circa 1980’s high school years, my pink rotary telephone…

But I’ve given well over half my wardrobe to charity. Since I now have to wear an ileostomy bag, most of my fitted clothes no longer work, so I’ve freed them from their closet shackles so they can now bring joy to other women: women who are suffering in unimaginable ways – fleeing abusive partners, struggling to put food on the table for their kids, trying to kick drug addictions…These women deserve every little spark of joy that I can give them.

Gifts were initially harder for me to part with because of the guilt I felt and I must give credit to Marie Kondo for helping me with this issue. She encourages people to let go of unwanted gifts – with love, gratitude and blessings (or something like that) – and allow others the chance to experience joy.

In my case many of my unwanted gifts were jewelry items. My partner is not a jewelry gift giver, so that wasn’t a problem. And I kept some gifts that had sentimental value: an amber stone ring that my youngest brother gave me, my paternal grandmother’s wedding ring, a beaded Goddess necklace that my best friend gave me twenty-five years ago…But all the other jewelry that I had never worn, I cleaned, then bought individual decorative boxes to put them in before dropping them off at a women’s shelter; they would make beautiful birthday and holiday gifts. By helping another woman feel special, I was also – selfishly – helping myself. For each gift that I gave away I felt my spirits lift. It was as if each box contained a magic potion that wafted out and enveloped me, making me feel, (at least temporarily), very happy.

My partner is weary of my de-cluttering compulsion, I think it makes him a bit uncomfortable; it seems a tad ghoulish. He’s also concerned that I might get rid of something that has sentimental value to him, so I’m very careful and mindful of his feelings.

In the end it’s my cancer journey (though I abhor that expression) and if getting rid of stuff that I have no love or use for helps me cope, then I’m going to continue. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll become a Minimalist.

After my surgery and heated chemotherapy (HIPEC), I spent two months in the hospital. At one point my room looked like a funeral parlor, there were about twenty floral arrangements. Now I love flowers and I love receiving them and I was/am hugely grateful for the kind gestures of my friends and family. But we need to mix it up a little, too many flowers can make a patient feel like a priest is about to walk through the door to administer their last rites. So what to buy your loved one instead? I recommend “Dammit Dolls.” They are bright, joyful, nutty little creatures that you can bang against your hospital bed when you get frustrated waiting for your morphine. There are many to choose from, one is even especially designed for cancer patients, with half the proceeds going towards fighting childhood cancer:

This morning as I was tidying up, I briefly entered our laundry room/office which is our “crazy room.” I think most of us have one of these, or the equivalent – a crazy closet, drawer or cupboard. It’s the place where everything you don’t want to deal with goes to die. I found myself thinking that the crazy room is very similar to that space in our psyche where we dump all of our emotional crap that we can’t deal with at the moment.

I keep telling my partner, “we need to deal with that room, it’s out of control.” And it’s true, it is out of control. For someone like me, who likes keeping the house clean and organized, the room makes me anxious. But the crazy room is actually more representative of my true emotional state than the rest of the tidy house. The crazy room has unopened boxes, piles of cords and computer stuff, unfolded clean sheets, my partner’s plaid shirts hanging from an IKEA shelf like little headless Grunge creatures, a dead plant, my ileostomy supplies (thank you cancer), a giant box of small catheter tubes (again, thank you cancer) and various other randomness.

And just like I side-step and avoid the issues that I don’t want to deal with, I also breeze right past the dead plant – sitting on the floor – to put in a load of laundry. Why not just pick up the plant and put it out in the green bin? That is what an emotionally healthy person would do, I think to myself as I breeze out of the room again. But somehow that damn dead plant and the rest of the crazy room has come to symbolize all the ways in which I am emotionally stuck, frozen, paralyzed.

I am extremely lucky in that I can afford to see a therapist, it’s a luxury many needy people don’t have. So in a sense I have an ’emotional cleaning lady’ who helps me clean up my personal crazy room twice a month. And yet, somehow, it seems no matter how hard I try, my crazy room never gets completely cleaned. Just as my cleaning lady and I finish cleaning one area of the room, another area beckons for attention. Its boxes need unpacking, its cords need untangling and its damn plant needs to be thrown out!